For more than a decade, Nompumelelo “Skado” Mlambo has built a career across radio, television, music and fashion, becoming a recognisable voice in South African entertainment. An award-winning radio host, TV presenter and DJ, Mlambo’s journey began with a love for music inspired by her brother and grew through her time at Voice of Wits, before taking her to Metro FM and some of the country’s biggest entertainment platforms.

Music has remained a constant throughout her career. From hosting Channel O’s Lockdown House Party and co-hosting SABC1’s Umshuni Womhlaba to interviewing international stars and working with major brands, Mlambo has continued to find new ways to connect with audiences. More recently, she has returned to one of her earliest passions by pursuing DJing professionally, creating The Sweet Spot and building towards her dream of becoming an international house music DJ.

 

For 10 Moments That Changed My Life, Mlambo reflects on the experiences that have shaped her both personally and professionally. From losing her father during Matric and becoming a mother, to discovering the power of therapy, confronting rejection, teaching her son about their family history and finally pursuing DJing, she looks back at the moments that taught her about grief, resilience, identity, compassion and the courage to keep going.

 

1. Losing My Dad During My Matric Year — 2009

 

Losing my father during my Matric year changed the trajectory of my life in ways I am still discovering. Grief never really leaves you; it creeps up on you when you least expect it, just to remind you that you lost a part of yourself. My father was a present, supportive Dad, and the older I get, the more grateful I am for that. Losing him so young taught me that some losses don’t become easier with time, you simply learn how to carry them differently.

 

2. Getting Through the Audition and Interview Process at Voice of Wits

 

Being selected as a presenter at Voice of Wits changed the rest of my life. I was volunteering at a state-of-the-art radio station with professional, expensive broadcasting equipment, and that experience prepared me for commercial radio in ways I didn’t fully appreciate at the time. It taught me discipline, work ethic, teamwork and what it meant to take broadcasting seriously. Voice of Wits became the foundation that opened the door to many of the opportunities I have today, including my journey at Metro FM.

 

3. Becoming a Mother

 

Becoming a mother has been the most difficult yet most rewarding journey of my life. Motherhood taught me patience, humility and that it is okay to be wrong sometimes, even as a mother. It showed me what unconditional love really feels like. It also brought out a much more playful side of me because I get to play, laugh and experience the world through my son’s eyes. Most importantly, motherhood taught me that it really does take a village to raise a child.

 

4. Travelling to Spain and Seeing Black Coffee’s Billboard in Ibiza

 

Driving out of the airport in Ibiza and seeing Black Coffee’s billboard was one of those seemingly ordinary moments that stayed with me. I remember feeling incredibly inspired. Seeing a South African DJ represented so prominently in a place like Ibiza made something feel possible in a completely different way. It pushed me to take my own DJing more seriously and reminded me that there is no reason why someone from South Africa can’t dream beyond South Africa.

 

5. Going to Therapy

I wish I had gone to therapy sooner. Therapy helped me put so many things into perspective. It taught me to forgive more, but also to understand that forgiveness doesn’t mean pretending that traumatic things didn’t happen. I learned to acknowledge what happened to me instead of rushing myself to “forgive” it. Therapy also forced me to look inward, recognise my own flaws and take responsibility for the parts of myself that needed work. It has been one of the most important investments I have made in myself.

 

6. Learning How to Swim

 

I recently learned how to swim, and it was much harder and scarier than I expected. I cried the first time I managed to do it by myself without being held. That moment reminded me that I am never too old to learn something new and that sometimes you have to do things scared. Waiting until you feel fearless means you may never start. Learning to swim also unexpectedly strengthened my relationship with my son because swimming is something he loves, and now we can experience it together. It gave me something new to share with him.

 

7. Being Rejected From Master’s Programmes in Psychology for the Second Year

Being rejected for the second consecutive year by various institutions for a Master’s in Psychology, despite sitting with six distinctions, has been incredibly frustrating. In a country with such a significant need for psychologists, the difficulty of accessing Master’s training has been particularly difficult for me to understand and accept.

 

Unlike some of the other experiences on this list, I can’t yet say that this one has taught me something. Right now, it has mostly left me frustrated and questioning what comes next. I am beginning to explore what kind of impact I can make in the mental health space without being a qualified psychologist. Perhaps one day the rejection letters will make sense. Maybe they will eventually teach me something, redirect me, or lead me somewhere I couldn’t see at the time.

 

8. Visiting the Hector Pieterson Museum With My Son

 

Visiting the Hector Pieterson Museum with my son was deeply personal. I was raised by a grandmother, alongside aunts and uncles who lived through and tried to survive the brutality of apartheid in Soweto. The older I get, the more I appreciate what my parents were able to give my siblings and me despite where they came from.

 

My mother had to leave school to work as a domestic worker alongside her mother because they were extremely poor. My grandmother earned very little. My aunts attended overcrowded schools with hundreds of other learners while working after school. My grandfather was a garden worker who struggled to provide for his family and was sometimes brutally beaten by the police simply for being where he was not supposed to be.

 

My uncle, Daniel Legodi, whose images are displayed at the Hector Pieterson Museum, was also an activist during that time. Like so many young people during the Soweto Uprising, he could have been killed that day.

 

It was difficult and painful to share these stories with my son, but it was important. I want him to understand who we are, where we come from and the extraordinary resilience and fortitude of Black people who came before us. Our history isn’t just something we learn from textbooks or museums, it is the history of the people who raised us.

 

9. Witnessing the Impact of Substance Abuse on People I Love

One of the saddest and most traumatic things I have witnessed is seeing people I am related to and grew up with struggle with substance abuse and watching it steal parts of their lives and their dreams. As I have entered the field of psychology, I have developed a much deeper understanding and sympathy for what they may be experiencing.

 

I have come to understand that life can be incredibly difficult for some people, and for some, substances become a way of escaping pain, trauma, hopelessness or circumstances they don’t know how to cope with. Substance abuse is far more complex than simply saying someone is troublesome, disrespectful, has bad parents or fell into the wrong crowd because of peer pressure.

 

Understanding that complexity has changed the way I look at addiction. It hasn’t made the consequences any less painful, but it has made me more compassionate. Sometimes understanding doesn’t take away the sadness, it simply allows you to see the person behind the addiction.

 

10. Pursuing DJing Professionally

 

DJing has genuinely changed my life. I had always wanted to do it professionally, and while I was at Wits University, I even attended DJ Zinhle’s DJing school. Unfortunately, I couldn’t pursue it professionally at the time. I didn’t have the equipment, resources or financial means to practise consistently, so the dream had to wait.

 

More than ten years later, I finally found myself in a position where I could afford to invest in the equipment, practise regularly and take the dream seriously. What started as something I had always wanted to do has now become something I do professionally, both in South Africa and beyond.

 

DJing taught me that a dream delayed is not necessarily a dream denied. Sometimes you simply have to wait until you have the resources, confidence and circumstances to pursue it properly. I often wish I had started sooner, but I also realise that perhaps I wasn’t ready then.

 

Today, I absolutely love it. DJing is my happy place. It is one of the few things I do where I can completely lose myself in the moment, and I am incredibly grateful that a dream I had more than a decade ago is now part of the life I get to live.